WASHINGTON, DC ­– Today, Rep. Ruben Gallego (AZ-07) introduced a bill to protect the Bears Ears National Monument from an unprecedented attempt by the Trump administration to downsize and redraw the monument’s boundaries.

Last year, following extensive negotiations with five Native American tribes, President Obama signed Proclamation 9558, which established the Bears Ears National Monument, conserving 1.35 million acres of wilderness and protecting over 100,000 Native American archaeological and cultural sites.

WASHINGTON, DC – Rep. Ruben Gallego released the following statement in response to the Trump administration’s decision to repeal the Clean Power Plan:

“The Trump administration’s decision to repeal the Clean Power Plan is a reckless step backward and a disappointing abdication of our responsibility to address a worsening climate crisis. Scott Pruitt’s actions mean that millions of Americans will be exposed to more pollution, and many regions of the United States will face the prospect of serious economic effects from climate change.

WASHINGTON – Anakarina Rodriguez traveled from southern Arizona to Washington with a message for President Barack Obama: designate 1.7 million acres around the Grand Canyon as a national monument.

“I remember being a little girl and traveling to the Grand Canyon for the first time ever,” Rodriguez said. “I remember seeing vividly this amazing wonder of the world, which I had just learned about in Miss Brown’s fifth-grade class.”

This week, we celebrate 100 years since President Woodrow Wilson signed the law establishing the National Park Service, a historic moment for our country and our state. Home to the Grand Canyon, Petrified Forest National Park, Prescott National Forest, and the fascinating Montezuma Castle National Monument, just north of Phoenix, we in Arizona know the value of protecting our country’s iconic natural beauty and cultural and historic sites.

In a study called “the first-ever comprehensive estimate” of its total economic value, the lands and programs of the National Park Service were reckoned to be worth around $92 billion to the American people. According to Professor Linda J. Bilmes of the Harvard Kennedy School, one of the researchers who led the study, this shows that Americans value the parks system at 30 times more than the federal government spends to operate it.

WASHINGTON — A first-of-its kind coalition of more than 30 civil rights, environmental justice and conservation groups is pushing for greater efforts to promote diversity in national parks and other public lands.

The group calls itself the Centennial Initiative because of this year’s 100th anniversary of the National Park Service and is hoping to increase:

-- the use of national parks by minorities

-- employment of minorities at parks

--the number of parks and monuments that highlight the role of minorities in American history.